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A Review of the Work 

of the 

American Antiquarian Society 

(1907-1917) 



BY 

WALDO LINCOLN 



A Review of the Work 

of the 

American Antiquarian Society 

(1907-1917) 



BY 

WALDO LINCOLN 



Reprinted from the Proceedings 

OP THE American Antiquarian Society 

FOR October, 1917. 



WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, U. S. A. 

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 

1918 






THE DAVIS PRESS 

Worcester, Massachusetts 



AU6 12 t8]8 






A REVIEW OF THE WORK OF THE 
AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY 



In making the Council Report for this meeting of 
October, 1917, the writer completes his tenth year as 
President, and it therefore seems an appropriate time 
to review the work of the Society and the advance of 
its library and collections during the ten year period. 

From 1812 to 1831 the number of members was 
unlimited, no distinction was made between resident 
and non-resident members, and many gentlemen 
were elected who never qualified. From 1831, when 
the number of members was first fixed, until 1907, 
active membership was limited to one hundred and 
forty. In April, 1907, this number was increased to 
one hundred and seventy-five, where it still remains. 
In October, 1907, there were one hundred and thirty- 
five active members, representing twenty-two States 
and Territories of the Union, and twenty-four foreign 
members representing eleven countries. There are 
today one hundred and seventy-four active members 
from twenty-six States and Territories, and thirty 
foreign members from fifteen countries. In 1907, 
ninety-eight members were residents of New England, 
or 72 per cent; today one hundred and four are resi- 
dents of New England, or 60 per cent. Of the ninety- 
eight New England members in 1907 eighty were 
from Massachusetts, or 59 per cent, and thirty from 
Worcester, or 22 per cent. Today eighty-five are 
from Massachusetts, or 49 per cent, and twenty-eight 
from Worcester, or 16 per cent, showing a noteworthy 
broadening in membership. 



The Society's invested and interest-bearing endow- 
ment in 1907 was $218,902.07; of which $60,000 was 
due to a partial payment, during the preceding finan- 
cial year, of the legacy of Mr. Stephen Sahsbury; and 
the non-productive real estate was valued at $70,000. 
The next year the interest-bearing endowment was 
increased $149,500 by the payment of the balance of 
the Sahsbury legacy. In October, 1917 the interest- 
bearing endowment is $319,264, and the actual cost 
of the non-productive real estate $189,905.71; an 
increase of about $100,000 in the former item and 
about $120,000 in the latter or $220,000 in all. Of 
this $149,500 is due to the legacy of Mr. Salisbury 
and the balance, about $70,000, to legacies and sub- 
scriptions received during the past ten years, which 
latter sum is the largest amount received in any ten 
consecutive years since the Society's foundation if 
Mr. SaUsbury's legacy is excepted, and is largely due 
to the efforts of the present administration. 

In October, 1849 the Society first began the regular 
pubUcation of its Proceedings, two numbers being 
printed annually and three of these numbers making 
a volume until 1911, since which time the two numbers 
of each year have constituted a volume. The size 
of the numbers has increased from an average of one 
hundred and forty pages previous to 1911, to an aver- 
age during the past three years of two hundred and 
thirty-seven pages, a part of this increase being due 
to comprehensive bibhographies which have become 
something of a specialty of the Society, and which 
it seems very desirable should so continue. Previous 
to 1909 the Society, in ninety-seven years, published 
eight volumes of Transactions, formerly called 
"Archaeologia Americana". Since then four more 
volumes have been pubhshed, besides a volume of the 
Proceedings from 1812 to 1849 containing five hun- 
dred and eighty-one pages. The reduced income, 
owing to the completion of the new building, and the 
gradually increasing cost of printing have not allowed 



the publication of further volumes of Transactions, 
the Publishing Fund being less than sufficient to pro- 
vide for the printing of the enlarged Proceedings. 
In 1908 the Library was estimated to contain 99,000 
volumes, including 7,000 volumes of newspapers, 
4,000 almanacs, and 2,000 genealogies, besides about 
135,000 pamphlets, a slight overestimate of all but 
the last item. The old building at Lincoln Square was 
filled to overflowing to such a degree that many vol- 
umes of newspapers were stored outside the building, 
and many departments of the Library were extremely 
inconvenient of access. The Library had practically 
reached its limit of growth for lack of room, which 
was unfortunate, since with the payment of Mr. 
Salisbury's legacy the Society was then, for the first 
time in many years, in possession of an income ade- 
quate to its wants. As something had to be done to 
provide not only for expected and desired growth, but 
also for the safety of the Library, land was bought 
and the present building completely finished and 
occupied early in 1911. The shelving in it was 
planned to accommodate 170,000 volumes including 
12,000 volumes of newspapers, this being thought to 
be ample provision for the growth of from fifteen to 
twenty years, and the whole building was made abso- 
lutely fireproof. The cost of this unfortunately 
reduced the Society's income to a point which, while 
larger than before the receipt of Mr. Salisbury's 
legacy, was quite insufficient to provide for the pur- 
chase of rare and valuable specimens of Americana, 
and for the needful expenses incident to the care of a 
large reference library, the almost unrestricted use 
of which was, as ever, offered freely to the public. 
But for the last eight years a young and ambitious 
librarian, with a keen scent for an old book, and with 
an astonishing knowledge of values in the auction 
room, has been able, in spite of an inadequate income, 
to fill the newspaper stack to overflowing and to make 
the shelving for other volumes to appear in need of 
early enlargement. 



6 



The growth of the Library as a whole, considering 
the money spent, has been phenomenal, and some of 
the departments have been raised from comparative 
insignificance to a high rank among collections of 
Americana. By actual count there are now on the 
shelves 128,728 volumes and 192,058 pamphlets, an 
increase since 1908 of thirty and forty- two per cent 
respectively. 

COUNT OF LIBRARY, OCTOBER, 1917 



General collection 

Spanish Americana . 

Civil War and slavery 

Imprints . 

Local history . 

Genealogical 

Reference books 

Mather Ubrary 

Mather tracts 

Bibles 

Prayer books 

Hymn books 

Music books 

U. S. Government documents 

State documents 

Town documents 

American documents 

Periodicals 

Directories 

Almanacs and registers 

Legal books 

School books 

Miscellaneous volumes 

Atlases .... 

Literary catalogues . 

Sale catalogues 

Boimd volumes of Pamphlets 

College material 

Speeches and addresses 

American and local societies 

Railroad reports 

Guides and time tables 

Miscellaneous pamphlets . 

Newspapers 

Total 



VOLUMES 


PAMPHLETS 


36,205 


2,000 


2,170 


810 


1,909 


1,630 


3,925 


11,500 


7,497 


820 


2,518 




1,011 


242 


729 




463 




672 




260 




675 




808 




13,500 


21,860 


6,553 


3,200 


1,040 


15,050 


426 


711 


13,632 


900 


3,812 




800 


8,909 


510 




10,120 


130 


5,048 




355 




323 


3,526 


140 


14,450 


1,161 




970 


22,730 




37,740 


410 


34,000 




3,500 




1,900 




6,650 


10,086 





128,728 



192,058 



The above summary has been counted and arranged 
by classes, as the books are grouped on the shelves. 
In some of the groups, however, the number of vol- 
umes given does not show the full strength of the 
collection, as many titles may be included in another 
group. The general collection, for instance, includes 
reference books, imprints, Spanish-Americana, and other 
classes of books. 

In the special line of American imprints previous 
to 1820, the Library contained in 1907 about 25,000 
out of an estimated total of 75,000 titles. There 
have since been acquired 11,824 titles, so that today 
the Library has very nearly one-half of the whole num- 
ber. The majority of these recent acquisitions are, of 
course, of no great value except from a bibliographical 
and historical point of view, but among the most 
noteworthy are: 

The three editions of the Saur Bible published at 
Germantown; the "Blutige Schau-Platz" of 1748, a 
splendid production of the Ephrata Press; and the 
''Zionitischer Weyrauchs-Hiigel, " 1739, the first book 
printed by Christopher Saur. 

A perfect copy of "The Laws, Statutes, Ordinances 
and Constitutions of the City of New York," 1763, 
with rubricated preliminary page. 

The "Civil, Military and Ecclesiastical Register of 
New Hampshire" of 1772. This belongs to the 
almanac collection and is exceedingly rare. 

"Abridgment of Military Discipline," Boston, 1690, 
the first work of a military nature printed in the 
United States. 

Besides these about 100 imprints previous to 1775, 
unknown to bibliographers, have been secured, and 
sixteen works by Cotton Mather and four by Increase 
Mather have been added to a collection previously 
surpassed by no other library, and the collection of 
American Bibles has been trebled, making it one of 
the three best in the country. 

Over five hundred genealogies have been obtained, 
and of books on New England local history about 



8 

two hundred volumes have been added to what was 
previously a very good collection, making it today 
practically complete, while so many county and town 
histories outside of New England have been obtained 
as to make that collection, which in 1907 was hardly 
worthy of notice, the best in New England and among 
the best six in the United States. 

The Society has now one of the finest collections of 
American periodicals to be found anywhere, being 
especially strong in initial numbers and in unusual 
publications. 

There are over four thousand city and town direc- 
tories in the Library, covering the whole United 
States, whereas formerly the Society possessed few 
outside of Massachusetts. 

Through the kindness of Hon. Charles G. Washburn 
and Congressman Winslow the Library has been re- 
stored to the list of recipients of Government publi- 
cations, from which it had been inadvertently removed 
in 1906, and has, probably, the most complete collec- 
tion of government imprints outside of Washington. 

For several years Miss Alice W. Kurtz, a young 
American woman, travelled through Mexico and 
Guatemala, seeking for rare imprints of those coun- 
tries. Through her the Society has been able to 
obtain, at very reasonable cost, a really remarkable 
number of those imprints, a collection especially strong 
in the vocabularios and artes of the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries, besides many newspapers of 
the nineteenth century. 

Ten years ago the Library owned almost no cat- 
alogues of book dealers or of book auction sales, while 
today it has practically complete files of the cat- 
alogues of American book auction houses, many of 
them being priced and in the case of important sales 
with the names of buyers inserted. It has about 
ninety per cent of the catalogues of American book 
dealers and a very large proportion of the English 
catalogues. The collection contains over fourteen 
thousand pieces, and in connection with the author cat- 



alogue of the Congressional Library, of which the 
Society is a depository, furnishes a mine of biblio- 
graphical information which is frequently used by 
correspondents, and is invaluable to the library staff. 

By the generosity of Mr. Charles H. Taylor, Jr., 
the Library now has over one thousand titles on 
American journalism, forming a notable collection 
on that interesting and important subject. 

Over fifty-three hundred almanacs have been 
added in the last ten years to the four thousand 
formerly owned by the Society, making this the largest 
and best collection of American almanacs in the United 
States. Owing to the ample room provided in the 
new building the almanacs are now conveniently 
shelved and systematically arranged. 

The collection of American school-books, which 
was of unusual merit in 1907, has since been more 
than doubled, now numbers ten thousand volumes, 
and is of very great importance for the study of 
education. 

Except through the generosity of the New England 
Historic Genealogical Society, in depositing its col- 
lection of maps with this Society, no large addition 
has been made in this department, but the greatest 
improvement to be noted here is the alphabetical 
arrangement of the maps in the steel cases provided 
for them in the Map and Print Room, which facili- 
tates their being consulted and preserves them from 
destruction. The same may be said of the broadsides, 
prints, photographs, and miscellaneous objects belong- 
ing to the Society, which are now not only much 
safer, but so much more easy of access as to make 
them seem, though not materially more numerous 
than before, almost new possessions. Among these 
miscellaneous objects may be mentioned a collection 
of over nineteen hundred specimens of the copper 
tokens issued during the Civil War, which was secured 
in 1914 through the liberality of a member, the Society 
possessing up to that time a very few varieties. 



10 

The gift of Mrs. Emma De F. Morse, in 1913, of the 
remarkable collection of American historical pottery, 
is too recent and important to have been forgotten 
by the members. It comprises 218 varieties of dark 
blue Staffordshire ware and 105 other pieces all with 
American views, many of great rarity and interest. 

Through the generosity and continuing labor of the 
Rev. Herbert E. Lombard, the Society now possesses 
a collection of American book-plates of notable inter- 
est and value. Mr. Lombard presented the Library 
with his own collection, and has since been devoted 
to its increase so that, with the purchase a year ago 
of the Terry book-plates, the Society, which in 1907 
owned practically none, now owns more than ten 
thousand of these samples of the engraver's art. 

Several specimens of the work of Paul Revere, some 
of them heretofore unknown, have been purchased 
in the last eight years and the Library now has nearly 
every known print by this interesting engraver. 

The increase of newspapers has been most remark- 
able; 2,534 bound volumes and 118,917 unbound 
numbers, equal to about 1,200 volumes, have been 
secured. Most of these date before 1870, though 
perhaps one-fifth are current publications, the Society 
preserving and binding about thirty-five modern 
newspapers each year. The greatest improvement 
in the newspaper files has been in the years from 1820 
to 1850, in which period the Library was weakest in 
1907, but over five thousand issues have been obtained 
previous to 1800. The most important files secured are: 

Washington Globe, 1832-1863; Washmgton Star, 
1853-1865; True Flag, 1852-1886; Arkansas Gazette, 
1820-1849; Newport Mercury, 1800-1850; Providence 
Gazette, 1780-1825; New York Shipping and Com- 
mercial List, 1827-1860; Missouri Gazette, 1809-1818; 
New York Atlas, 1838-1872; Windham Herald, 1792- 
1805; Cincinnati Gazette, 1844-1877; Wisconsin Argus 
and Wisconsin State Journal, together covering the 
years from 1844 to 1898; Pawtucket Gazette, 1839- 



11 

1909; Concord Statesman, 1837-1866; New Hampshire 
Gazette, 1799-1848; Portsmouth Journal, 1821-1903; 
Pennsylvania Packet, 1783-1790; and the two remark- 
able files of the Alexandria Gazette, 1800-1910, and 
the Reading Adler, 1796-1913, both of these being 
office files and practically complete, each covering 
more than one hundred years. 

A very large and valuable collection of South 
American papers has also been secured, partly by 
purchase and partly by exchange with Harvard Uni- 
versity; and files of papers published in the West 
Indies and forming a remarkable collection of the 
newspapers of the Windward and Leeward Islands, 
was given to the Library in 1913. Since that time 
a successful effort has been made to acquire the 
Trinidad newspapers of the last thirty years, so that, 
with but few JDreaks, the Library possesses the local 
news of some one of those islands since 1790, a period 
of more than one hundred and twenty-five years. 

While not many additions have been made to the 
manuscripts, mention must not be omitted of the 
''Records of the Council for New England," presented 
by the late Frederick Lewis Gay in 1912, on the occa- 
sion of the centennial celebration of the Society. This 
gift was a great compliment to the Society and its 
officers, showing Mr. Gay's appreciation of the value 
of the Library, of the care taken for its preservation 
and of his confidence in the continuation of that care. 
It is the aim of the present administration to deserve 
that confidence, in the hope that other collectors, 
whether members of the Society or not, may follow 
Mr. Gay's example, and honor the Society by entrust- 
ing to it their gems of early Americana, so that, safe 
from the dangers and vicissitudes of private owner- 
ship, these may be preserved for the benefit of the 
future students of American history. 

WALDO LINCOLN, 

For the Council. 



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